Ida Lockett of Sacramento, Calif., said her 5-year-old son received the toy as a birthday present, and when she was helping him assemble it, she noticed the instructions — telling her to put a play shackle around the figure's neck.

"This right here was found on his neck," she told CBS Sacramento about the piece.

"You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else. The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is — it's a slave collar."

The toy's instruction manual shows a dark-skinned doll wearing no shoes, ripped pants and a tattered yellow shirt and directs the assembler to pop the silver piece around its neck. The ship appears to include a dungeon.

Playmobil told The Washington Post that the figure was supposed to be an escaped slave.

Well then why are there instructions to collar another human being?

It's indisputable that this is historical, but there is a whole shi*tload of historical atrocities that we don't make toys out of. So let's leave the unwilling enslavement, torture and death of millions of people for centuries out of play time, huh?

It is sad that this boy can't have his present, though. We're sure he got something better.

The latest holiday catalogue released by Sweden's toy retail chain Top Toy is making some buzz for breaking the gender-role stereotypes in its product pages, which features girls with Nerf guns and boys with doll houses and Hello Kitty. According to Jezebel, Top Toy's gender-swapped catalogue may have been inspired in part by the widespread debate over the issue of gender equality that has been ongoing for the past few years in the Scandinavian nation. Hat tip goes to The Mary Sue.

Meanwhile in (X) of the Day is a feature series bringing you the latest buzz from all over the continents with a special focus on non-English speaking parts of the world.

Check out this stellar line-up of modern scientist action figures designed by digital artist Russell Gawthorpe. According to his DeviantART profile description, Gawthorpe spent about 50 hours on Photoshop to revamp his collection of Star Trek action figures into the most famous scientists of the 20th century. While there is no plan for production yet, people's reaction on Twitter may change that in the near future. Hat tip goes to CBC.